One of the darkest corners of the internet is the subject of a new exposé by NBC News.
Correspondent Ben Collins, who covers disinformation, extremism and the internet for NBC, explained that he was very cautious about filing the report on the website Kiwi Farms with reporter Kat Tenbarge.
"I've been covering bad parts of the internet for long time now," Collins posted to Twitter in a thread.
"For years, there was one site extremist researchers warned me not to cover because publicizing it would be dangerous. But it's time people know KiwiFarms—and how they're chasing political enemies around the world," Collins explained.
"How is KiwiFarms worse than 4chan and 8chan? Three people the site have targeted later died by suicide," Collins noted.
"Why is KiwiFarms more dangerous than any other site? Its far-right userbase abuses all of the private data companies have accrued over the last decade—then weaponizes it against perceived enemies," Collins explained.
Collins' report with Tenbarge reported on the effort to shut down Kiwi Farms.
"Kiwi Farms is an internet message board known for being an epicenter of vicious, anti-trans harassment campaigns. It has operated for nearly a decade with the backing of some tech companies that refuse to drop services for it. But now, as the site’s users launch a wave of anti-trans attacks, a trans Twitch streamer targeted by Kiwi Farms is spearheading an unprecedented campaign to take down the fringe website," NBC News reported. "Clara Sorrenti and those supporting her are hoping to open up Kiwi Farms to debilitating virtual attacks by demanding Cloudflare, one of its internet security service vendors, drop the site. Cloudflare has so far refused to budge."
Collins and Tenbarge expect things to keep getting worse as long as the website continues to operate.
"If the ongoing efforts to close the forum fail, experts warn Kiwi Farms’ target list and techniques could expand as culture war issues gain more attention ahead of the 2024 election, potentially affecting more LGBTQ private citizens or creating a national security threat with the expansion of Kiwi Farms’ harassment tactics to new targets," NBC News reported. "Kiwi Farms has become synonymous with doxxing (the release of an individual’s identifying information with malicious intent), swatting (a term for when an anonymous person sends an urgent, false tip to the police about a violent crime in a victim’s home in the hopes that law enforcement will raid it and potentially harm the person inside), and archiving controversial materials such as manifestos by mass shooters and recordings of their livestreams."
Sorrenti was swatted and has fled the country.
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"The same tactic was used when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was swatted just days later, according to a police report from the incident obtained by NBC News. The caller identified themselves as a Kiwi Farms user and used a computer-generated voice, the report said. It’s not clear if the person who swatted Sorrenti also swatted Greene. Greene’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment," NBC reported.
The network interviewed Alejandra Carabello, an attorney at Harvard Law School’s Cyberlaw Clinic, who warned about the influence the site could have in the 2024 election.
“This is stochastic terror that’s being implemented as part of the culture war,” Carabello reported. "Something like Kiwi Farms could be utilized by people with a lot more resources to do a lot more harm."
In his Twitter thread, Collins explained why he was reporting on Kiwi Farms.
"I'm writing about KiwiFarms now because their playbook of terror is being adopted by far-right internet spaces across the web," he wrote. "Boston Children's Hospital was locked down due to a bomb threat this week. KiwiFarms and 4chan users clogged an LGBTQ suicide hotline a day later."
"The KiwiFarms playbook—using our data to terrorize political enemies—is where the culture war is headed in 2022 and 2024," Collins warned. "Trans people are their current targets, but they are broadening their enemies list."
